Happy Easter!

Enjoy your easter bunny and eggs!

My new hobby

It's been quite some times since I have hobby, in fact I don't know what is my hobby. I like to do many things such as reading a book, blogging, facebooking, being lazy and all.. wait... is being lazy consider as a hobby or what?

As some of you know, there are bloggers who are great photographer and great with the camera. To name a few are: Toni Wahid, Elyani, Parvita, and many more. I have never interested to own a real camera like SLR because I like to be in the photo. Yeah Toni, Elyani & Vita know that I am attention whore aka banci foto :)) and I'm very good in front of the camera, meaning I always 100% ready with smile everytime they direct the camera to me!.

But it has changed.


Since I moved to Canberra the urge to take photos with real camera is very strong, Canberra is a beautiful place especially during Autumn. And some of my friends here are also have good camera or as I called it as sophisticated camera and they are also very good at it.

So when Sam is overseas for work I see that opportunity to ask him to buy me camera because he wasn't here on our anniversary. Oh well that's just my bluffing.. but anyway he bought me Canon 500D and I'm soo happy, finally yayyy.... Although what I have is only the standard lens but I love it.. and I can't wait to get other lens err... yes baby, I know what I want for my birthday! :).

And I declare that my new hobby is taking photos!. Photography sounds too sophisticated for me :)

Here are some of the photos I took as a beginner enjoy....

Hi, how are you going?

When I first arrive at the land down under a couple of years ago I was amazed with how nice they are. Everytime we went to Coles, woolies, cafe, coffee club and any other store, the cashier or the employee will greet us with "hi, how are you going?" and with big smile on their face, well alright not all with big smile but the greeting is always there. Eventhough maybe they are not mean it when they greet you but it still give nice feeling, well at least for me.

Coming from the country who people say the people are nice, I never get that greet back in Jakarta. Not when I'm at the cashier at Hero or Carrefour or Ranch market let alone cafe or bar, never. But I would make an exception for EP and Cazbar.

When I'm in the good mood I will answer with "I'm good, thanks" but when I am in a bad mood I just give them smile, yeah I am a mean person sue me.

Maybe only Coles and Woolies who trained its employee to greet customer, but I would say that is a brilliant strategy to make the customers feel welcome. I guess there is nothing wrong if Hero and Carrefour want to adopt that strategy.

And after all, Indonesians are nice people, aren't we?

The hardest job in the world

I would say.. being a parent is the hardest job in the world.

Becoming a parent does not come with an instruction manual for all the things you will face. It is one of the most important and difficult things you can do as well as one of the most rewarding. To raise a child is an enormous responsibility which is usually taken for granted and for which there is little training. Most parents learn as they go, influenced by the way they were brought up or by what they have read or watched others do.

Parenting styles may be different but we all share a common goal. We want our children to turn into healthy, happy, well adjusted, successful, honest, caring, responsible adults who will be respectful of others feelings and property, be able to get along with others and be able to cope with difficulties!! It is a lot to ask. Your children and your community rely on you to do this well.

The parenting challenge

Being a parent means creating a loving, safe environment for your children as they grow from baby to toddler, right through to the teenage years. You'll need different skills for each stage, but at all times your child will depend on you. You'll become the expert on your child and on what they need to grow into happy, healthy adults.

Loving your child, with no strings attached, is the most important thing you can do. But you'll also have to make a huge number of decisions about the best way to bring up your child. This responsibility brings joy and excitement, but it can also be overwhelming, frustrating or even boring at times.

Most people manage these emotional and practical challenges with a mixture of love, help from relatives and friends, good advice, common sense and luck.

When I was in Indonesia I wasn't exposed with this parenting knowledge because you are not alone there are a lot of helpers around the parent: the nanny, the maid, the grand parents, the aunties and uncles and etc. Look after children and observing full on parents without the helpers open my mind about the challenges. You can figure out the parenting style of the parents by looking at the children attitude, which children have boundaries at home and which children get everything they want and the parents let them do anything they want.

On the early days you are worry about nutrition intake, food, brain development, social capacity, etc. Beside that you also have to deal when they are teens, dealing with their behaviour problem and so on.

It's a never ending work, but what you give on the early days will be a lifetime investment.

Well, I am not a parent yet and I would love to be one, one day when I'm ready.

You may and may not agree with my opinion but this is my 2 cents :)

3 Things - Just humor me :)

Copy the note, delete my answers and type in your answers. Then tag a few good friends and family INCLUDING the person who sent it to you.

Three names I go by:
1. Ecky
2. Ecks
3. Ki

Three jobs I have had in my life:
1. Secretary
2. Account Executive
3. Account Manager

Three places I have lived:
1. Tangerang
2. Tasikmalaya
3. Jakarta

Three favorite drinks
1. Water
2. Wine
3. Cocktail

Three TV shows that I watch
1. The Wire
2. Criminal Minds
3. Castle, Bones, CSI.. and a lot more

Three places I have been
1. Singapore
2. Malaysia
3. Australia

Three people who e-mail me regularly:
1. Used to be my client, but not anymore :)
2. Sam
3. The girls.. that include: Anita, Mel, Dinar, Prila, Asti, Jen, Nonie, Yola

Three of my favorite foods
1. Sushi
2. Mexican Food
3. Any spicy food

Three friends I think will respond:
1. You
2. and you
3. yes you

Three things I am looking forward to:
1. Australia blogger land coffee with Anita, Santi & Ririn
2. Going back home next year
3. Move to Pohnpei in September 2010

My exercise plan

Today was stinking hot in Canberra, it's 33°C and humidity 53%. It's dry so no matter how hot it is we won't be sweaty, not like in Jakarta which very humid and you'll sweat a lot. I nick name winter as giant fridge and now I nick name spring as giant and never ending sauna lol.

But the warm weather inspires me to exercise again, yeah I have been lazy during Winter because I couldn't stand the cold when I run and also it's dark at 5pm which didn't give me enough time to run after work.

So here is my plan to welcome the summer:
- Running by the lake
- Alternate with ride a bike by the lake
- Eat healthy food: celery and carrots as snacks, no carbohydrate for dinner (well at least try to reduce it)

First thing first, I need to get the bike! We went for bike shopping last Sunday but no luck, I found the bike I like at Big W but they're out of stock in both Big W in Woden and Canberra Centre, a friend told us that we can find a bike at Salvos which is a better option because we don't have to assemble it! But then again the shop is closed when we get there, so we will try to go there again tomorrow since tomorrow is public holiday in Australia (Melbourne Cup). I don't need fancy bike though, what I need is a decent bike for exercise and I have bought the helmet not long after we arrived here :D.

When I was still living in Tangerang, I used to ride a bike a lot with my dad. We joined lots of competitions for long ride and once I won Rp 100.000 when I was 14 years old.

Does it sound to ambitious? Yeah maybe, but I plan to stick with it as some of friends said that I look chubby now and even my mum said that too arghh... Beside that, I want to look good in my summer dress!

Psst... I just bought lots of summer outfit last Saturday ;))

So wish me luck people, hopefully I can stick to my plan and emerge as a slim woman yaayyy!

4 injections later.....

After 90 minutes and 4 injections later they finally send me home.....

That was what happened 2 weeks ago, on the way back from coast to Canberra I got allergic reaction from prawn oh nooo... I know that I'm allergic to crab but I usually eat prawns and there is no problem, well maybe they didn't grill it properly or I don't know maybe my body was in its low level because of my flu and cold weather. I started to feel it 1 hour after lunch and mind you Australia is not like Indonesia where every city/town is close to each other. The closest city from Kioloa is Braidwood and it takes about 2 hours driving and how the hell I can stand with the allergic. At first I feel the itchy and then comes the rashes and after that the burning sensation and redness all over my body. We were aiming to go to pharmacy just to get something to reduce the symptom, but again this is Australia not Indonesia where some stores are close on Sunday arghhh....

Good thing we found a hospital in Braidwood, and when the nurse sees me she was in panic mode and call the GP to treat me right away. One of the benefit to have Medicare is that we don't have to worry about the hospital cost.
This year in total I had three allergic reactions, 2 was happened when I was still in Jakarta and I went to MMC and St Marie in Wijaya. The treatment was different to one another. In Jakarta they just give me injection and send me home, but in Australia after they gave me 1 injection they still monitoring the effectiveness of the injection whether it reduce the symptom or not. And when the GP didn't satisfy with the reaction he gave me another injection and another and another, in total he gave me 4 injections and 1 steroid tablet. The GP wants to make sure that all the redness, rashes and the burning sensation has gone and the reaction will not appear again before he send me home. So we have to stay at the hospital for 90 minutes... and the GP checks me every 5 minutes...

The GP prescribed Epipen for my allergic because he said next reaction will be worst than this, right now I'm officially anaphylaxis :((. In Australia anaphylaxis/ acute allergic is a serious condition and they take it seriously.

And since I moved to Australia GP has diagnosed me with Rheumatoid arthritis and Anaphylaxis.

Why here and why now?

Is it because the health system is so much better than in Indonesia or is it just my poor health condition?

MEN ARE JUST HAPPIER PEOPLE

NICKNAMES
· If Laura, Kate and Sarah go out for lunch, they will call each other Laura, Kate and Sarah.
· If Mike, Dave and John go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla and Four-eyes.

EATING OUT
· When the bill arrives, Mike, Dave and John will each throw in $20, even though it's only for $32.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want change back.
· When the girls get their bill, out come the pocket calculators..

MONEY
· A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
· A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need but it's on sale.

BATHROOMS
· A man has six items in his bathroom: toothbrush and toothpaste, shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel .
· The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337. A man would not be able to identify more than 20 of these items.

ARGUMENTS
· A woman has the last word in any argument.
· Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

FUTURE
· A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
· A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

SUCCESS
· A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend..
· A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

MARRIAGE
· A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
· A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, but she does.

DRESSING UP
· A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the trash, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail.
· A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.

NATURAL
· Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed..
· Women somehow deteriorate during the night.

OFFSPRING
· Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favorite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams.
· A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.

Let's talk about Canberra

Since I moved to Canberra, I haven't talked about this city although I know some people have already underestimate this city as quite one, yeah being public servants city is not as cool as Melbourne or Sydney.

Here is what wikipedia says about Canberra:
Canberra (pronounced /ˈkænbrə, ˈkænbərə/[3]) is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth largest Australian city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory, 280 km (170 mi) south-west of Sydney, and 660 km (410 mi) north-east of Melbourne. The site of Canberra was selected for the location of the nation's capital in 1908 as a compromise between rivals Sydney and Melbourne, Australia's two largest cities. It is unusual among Australian cities, being an entirely purpose-built, planned city. Following an international contest for the city's design, a design by the Chicago architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin was selected and construction commenced in 1913. The city's design was heavily influenced by the garden city movement and incorporates significant areas of natural vegetation that have earned Canberra the title "bush capital". Although the growth and development of Canberra were hindered by the World Wars and the Great Depression, it emerged as a thriving city after World War II.

As the seat of the government of Australia, Canberra is the site of Parliament House, the High Court of Australia and numerous government departments and agencies. It is also the location of many social and cultural institutions of national significance, such as the Australian War Memorial, National Gallery of Australia, National Museum of Australia and the National Library of Australia. The federal government contributes the largest percentage of Gross State Product and is the largest single employer in Canberra.

Canberra experiences hot, quite dry summers, and cold winters with heavy fog and frequent frosts, with a rare spot of snow in the CBD but the surrounding areas get annual snowfall through winter and often the snow capped mountains can be seen from the CBD. The highest recorded maximum temperature was 42.2 °C (108 °F) on 1 February 1968. The lowest recorded minimum temperature was −10.0 °C (14 °F) on 11 July 1971. Light snow falls in the city in one out of approximately three winters but is usually not widespread and quickly dissipates. Thunderstorms can occur between September and March, with rainfall maximums in spring and summer.

The urban areas of Canberra are organised into a hierarchy of districts, town centres, group centres, local suburbs as well as other industrial areas and villages. There are seven districts, each of which is divided into smaller suburbs, and most of which have a town centre which is the focus of commercial and social activities. The districts were settled in the following chronological order:

• North Canberra, mostly settled in the 1920s and '30s, with expansion up to the 1960s, now 14 suburbs
• South Canberra, settled from the 1920s to '60s, 13 suburbs --> where we live in.
  
• Woden Valley, first settled in 1963, 12 suburbs
• Belconnen, first settled in 1967, 25 suburbs
• Weston Creek, settled in 1969, 8 suburbs
• Tuggeranong, settled in 1974, 19 suburbs
• Gungahlin, settled in the early 1990s, 18 suburbs although only 12 are developed or under development
• Molonglo, development to begin in 2009, 12 suburbs planned.

I like living here because this city is easy to live in and pretty relax compare to other big cities like Jakarta, Melbourne or Sydney. It is easy to go around, and since the city is not too big I feel connected to other Indonesian who live here, I probably won't feel the same way if we live in Melbourne or Sydney.

We live in inner south of Canberra, basically we live in government offices area, we are at the same street with the Attorney General's office, in front of us is the Pharmacy agency, Dept. Foreign Affairs & Trade just 2 minutes walk from our place, we can see the Australian flag on top of The Parliament House from the back street of our basement garage. The neighbourhood is alive on the weekdays where I can see public servants walk to work but on the weekend is mostly like dead area, but I love it as it is a trendy part of the city and only 10 minutes from CBD, 5 minutes to Manuka Circle, and 5 minutes to Kingston shop.

Next must see event is Floriade, Saturday 12 September - 11 October 2009, Commonwealth Park, Canberra.

And if you want to see yourself in the Nation's Capital Canberra, check this site out: Home of the Australian story.

Well, hopefully all of those information about my new home will attract my friends to come and visit me here, I want them to know and experience my new home. I guess if they love me enough they will come and visit me here ;)

The beauty of Canberra, courtesy of Vinita Strudwick:

Aussie sense of humour

The questions below about Australia are from potential visitors. They were posted on an Australian Tourism Website and the answers are the actual responses by the website officials, who obviously have an excellent sense of humour.

Q: Does it ever get windy in Australia ? I have never seen it rain on TV, how do the plants grow? ( UK ).
A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die.

Q: Will I be able to see kangaroos in the street? ( USA )
A: Depends how much you've been drinking.

Q: I want to walk from Perth to Sydney - can I follow the railroad tracks? ( Sweden )
A: Sure, it's only three thousand miles, take lots of water.

Q: Can you give me some information about hippo racing in Australia ?( USA )
A: A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe . Aus-tra-lia is that big island in the middle of the Pacific which does not... oh forget it. Sure, the hippo racing is every Tuesday night in Kings Cross. Come naked.

Q: Which direction is North in Australia ? ( USA )
A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we'll send the rest of the directions.

Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys' Choir schedule? ( USA )
A: Aus-tri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y,which is...oh forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Kings Cross, straight after the hippo races. Come naked.

Q: Are there supermarkets in Sydney and is milk available all year round? ( Germany )
A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of vegan hunter/gatherers. Milk is illegal.

Q: Please send a list of all doctors in Australia who can dispense rattlesnake serum. ( USA )
A: Rattlesnakes live in A-meri-ca which is where YOU come from. All Australian snakes are perfectly harmless, can be safely handled and make good pets.

Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Australia , but I forget its name. It's a kind of bear and lives in trees. ( USA )
A: It's called a Drop Bear. They are so called because they drop out of Gum trees and eat the brains of anyone walking underneath them. You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go outwalking.

Q: Can you tell me the regions in Tasmania where the female population is smaller than the male population? ( Italy )
A: Yes, gay nightclubs.

Q: Do you celebrate Christmas in Australia ? ( France )
A: Only at Christmas.

Q: I was in Australia in 1969 on R+R, and I want to contact the girl I dated while I was staying in Kings Cross. Can you help? ( USA )
A: Yes, and you will still have to pay her by the hour.

Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? ( USA )
A: Yes, but you'll have to learn it first